Hong Kong police charge 4 journalists with collusion

Hong Kong, Jul 21 (AP): Hong Kong national security police on Wednesday charged four former senior employees at the now-defunct Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper over alleged foreign collusion to endanger national security, weeks after the newspaper was forced to close after authorities froze its asset.

Hong Kong police charge 4 journalists with collusion

Hong Kong, Jul 21 (AP): Hong Kong national security police on Wednesday charged four former senior employees at the now-defunct Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper over alleged foreign collusion to endanger national security, weeks after the newspaper was forced to close after authorities froze its assets.

Lam Man-chung, who was the executive editor-in-chief of Apple Daily, was arrested Wednesday, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper, which cited an unnamed source. He is the eighth person from the newspaper arrested in recent weeks.

Three other former Apple Daily journalists — Associate Publisher and Deputy Chief Editor Chan Pui-man, and editorial writers Fung Wai-kong and Yeung Ching-kee — were also detained Wednesday after their bail was revoked, according to local media reports.

All four were charged with conspiring to “collude with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security" under the city's year-old national security law.

Chan was among five Apple Daily executives and editors arrested on June 17, while Yeung and Fung were arrested days after the police operation. Fung was arrested at the airport while allegedly attempting to leave to the United Kingdom.

Police confirmed that they laid the foreign collusion charges against four people, aged between 51 and 57, but did not identify them. They will appear in court Thursday.

Hong Kong security minister Chris Tang denied that the arrests would trigger a “white terror” — a term referring to a climate of fear caused by political repression — among journalists.

“Whoever committed an offense will be arrested, disregarding their background, whatever they do, or what are their professions,” he said.

“It doesn't really matter. If they committed an offence, they will be arrested. And if there is any evidence, they will be prosecuted.” The Hong Kong Journalists Association criticised the “repeated targeting of journalists” from Apple Daily, stating that it was “shocked and puzzled” by the arrest of Lam since the newspaper had already ceased operations.

The association also asked the government to explain how news and publishing work which has been legally carried out and is protected under the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, could endanger national security.

“Freedom of the press and the freedom to publish are important cornerstones for the success of an international city,” it said in a statement on its Facebook page.

In June, police raided the Apple Daily's offices, taking away hard drives and laptops as evidence. The arrests of top executives, editors and journalists at the paper, as well as the freezing of $2.3 million worth of assets, led it to cease its operations last month. It sold a million copies of its final edition.

Following months of anti-government protests in 2019, Beijing last year imposed a sweeping national security law in the semi-autonomous city that critics say restricts freedoms promised to the former British colony that are not found on mainland China.

The law criminalises secessionism, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion to intervene in the city's affairs. Since it was implemented in June last year, more than 100 pro-democracy supporters have been arrested under the law, and many others have fled abroad. (AP) SCY SCY

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)